17 year old with migraines and now seizures

[kimiko06]

My daughter is 17. She has had migraines since she was 8. They start with vision loss. Then her body starts to go numb. She has trouble focusing and talking. She gets dizzy and nausiated. They usually last about 24-48 hours. Recently she gets them as often as twice a week. Two weeks ago, she had a migraine at school and the school had me meet her at the doctors office. By the time I got there she was having seizures and the doctor gave her Maxalt and had called an ambulance.The hospital did numerous tests; blood, urine, CT scan, spinal tap. They couldn't find anything wrong and sent her to a neorologist. He put her on Maxalt and Topomax (topamax) and ordered an MRI and a sleep deprived EEG. They both came back clear. Three days later she was in the hospital with another migraine and seizures. I called the neorologist who told me to take her off of the Maxalt because it seemed to him that every time she took it she would have seizures. She has been off of the Maxalt for a week now and today I got a call from her school saying she started having seizures in class and the ambulance took her to the hospital and for me to meet them there.They gave her Adivant and after about 30 minutes the seizures stopped and they sent her home. I am at my wits end. No one seems to know what is causing this. I have been told she must be depressed or stressed about something. This is not the case and I think it is just an answer because they can't find another answer. Other than the seizures this has been going on for years. I have migraines just like hers and I have 2 sons that do too. Can it be a hormonal imbalance? Can the migraines be causing the seizures? Please help or at least give me an idea as to where to go from here.

thank you
Sammies concerned mom

[LifesAHeadache]

My God - I have a very hard time that they would try to pass this off as stress.

Some migraine variants can cause this seizure reaction.  The Topamax may need a higher dose and if that doesn't work, you may want to ask about Depakote.  Now, this is confusing (I am not a doctor but this is one hypothesis)

The seizure is a symptom of getting the migraine or a trigger for the migraine.  So she may actually need one Migraine preventative AND one anti-seizure med.  Topamax is touted to help so many people with migraines but their marketing campaign is huge and the drug is used world wide as this latest and greatest.  So when tons of people take it, yes it helps a lot of people but not exactly a fair comparison to those drugs not tried as often.  Topamax doesn't help some people at all.

My daughter doesn't actually have seizures but my theory is that light intake through your daughters eyes may be a seizure trigger for the migraine.  Not just turning on a light -

Has your daughter started playing a new WII game station game with bright flashing lights?  
Did she just start playing Guitar hero at parties?
Did she just get a new laptop and put a flashing background on it?

I know this sounds weird but there is research on this.  Also, based on this number of attacks and severity.  I am concerned at the treatment she has gotten.  Do you have a good teaching hospital/university in your area.  I would have her evaluated also by a board certified neuro-opthamologist.  Please write back.

Also, yes the hormones (especially 17ish - was she early or late starting menses) can play a HUGE roll.  I know this sounds basic but you need to be armed with data.  Be strict and make her start a headache/seizure/food/light action/daily mood/period/drinking diary.  I don't know your daughter, but 17 is really when it is so common for the kids to start drinking.  I don't agree with it but my daughter is close in age to you - I don't think she drinks - but I know a lot of her friends do - and I know that when she goes to the mall or sleepovers - I just can't send a nanny cam with her. LOL  

I know this is a ramble email but let us know how she is doing.

[tmoyes]

It is interesting that you mention that they blame it on stress because I used to have seizures due to headaches when I was very young. My last one was when I was about 8 years old and now I am 20 and the doctors too told me that it was stress but I know that it could not have possibly been stress when I was having seizures a 5 years of age.

[Mom640]

My daughter use to suffer almost daily from debilitating, blinding migraines where I had no choice but to take her to the Emergency Room. She tried every kind of migraine medication you can imagine.  I was even trained to give her injections of Imitrex myself, but nothing worked that I could give her.  I always had to take her to the ER where they would administer different meds by I.V. that would eventually work for her.  She's had an MRI and 2 CT Scans and they couldn't find an abnormalites.  I found a Herbal Treatment online that saved her from these horrible migraines.  It's called Christian Body Migraine Defense.  They have a website www.christianbody.com  After my daughter took the full does for one week her migraines stopped.  I couldn't believe it!!! I put my 73 year old neighbour on it too.  She suffered 2 to 3 times per week with migraines for approx 40 years.  She was reduced to getting only 1 migraine approx. every 2 to 3 months.  My daughter hasn't taken the herbal treatment now for over a year and she's only had one migraine in that year and it was because we had painted with an Oil Based Paint.  It's absolutely unbelievable that this stuff works.  I've been showing the Herbal Treatment to Doctors and Neurologists every chance I get.  Some are writing the info and ingredients down and some don't believe me, but oh my gosh...it totally gave my daughter her life back.  If you try it for your daughter, I hope it works even half as good as it worked for my daughter.